Dogpatch USA LbNA # 38549

Li’l Abner was the title character in the long-running (1934-1977) syndicated newspaper comic strip by cartoonist Al Capp. Li’l Abner generally had no visible means of support but he sometimes earned his living as a mattress tester. When not involved in worldwide escapades, or trying to outrun Daisy Mae, he was engrossed by his favorite “comical strip”, Fearless Fosdick. He interacted with many marvelous and fantastic characters cereating language and situations which have become permanent parts of the American lexicon. They all lived in a town called Dogpatch. In an era well before "political correctness" entered the vocabulary, Dogpatch exceeded every stereotype of Appalachia. The hillbillies in Li'l Abner's town were poorer than poor. The houses were hopelessly ramshackle. Most Dogpatchers were dumber than dumb. The remainder were scoundrels and thieves. Most of the men were too lazy to work, yet Dogpatch women were desperate enough to chase them. One preferred to live with hogs. Those who farmed their "tarnip" crop watched turnip termites descend every year, locust-like, to devour the crop. In the midst of the Great Depression, lowly Dogpatch allowed the most hard-up Americans to laugh at yokels worse off than they were. In Al Capp’s own words Dogpatch was “an average stone-age community” nestled in a bleak valley, between two cheap and uninteresting hills, somewhere. Dogpatch was a community that had literally “gone to the dogs.”

Directions:
This box is located at Double Lake Recreation Area near Coldspring, Texas. If you are going north from Houston on Highway 59, look for the Coldspring exit at Cleveland and take it, then follow Hwy. 2025 for about 15 miles to the park entrance on the right. Enter and pay your fee, then proceed, keeping right, and park by the swimming hole.

To the box:
Take the Lakeshore Trail next to the lake, keeping the lake on your left. When you come to where the Lakeshore Trail intersects the Lone Star Trail, turn to the right and follow the Lone Star Trail. Eventually, The trail will become hilly and the creek will be down to the left. Keep going and watching the aluminum trail markers that are nailed to some of the trees. When they tell you to go right and down off the raised trail, stop. Look back the way came and 25 steps away on the left side of the trail is another large pine tree with the aluminum marker on it. To its left, about 8 steps off the trail is a large pine that is leaning toward the trail. Dogpatch USA is behind that tree.

Before you set out, please read the
waiver of responsibility and disclaimer.
Please be sure to reseal baggies and boxes carefully so that they stay dry
and rehide boxes in their original location, completely hidden from view.